LOS ANGELES – Now that more middle-income Americans are infused with design savvy than ever before, what do they expect, desire or demand in a new home? And how will architects and home builders satisfy this growing group that jots notes while watching HGTV or "This Old House" and saves pages ripped from glossy design magazines?

About 300 people in the "shelter" business, most of them architects, debated and dreamed about what an affordable, thoughtfully sited and designed single-family home should be and how to deliver it at "Reinvention 2004: The Next American House," a conference held here earlier this month.

Architects from across the nation jousted with a few developers and builders in the crowd, but mostly with each other over design agendas and personal taste, individual desires and environmental responsibility.

Against the backdrop of Southern California's affordable housing crisis and the region's long history of legendary architectural and design innovations, several speakers reminded the gathering to keep hold of one fact: Buying a home is the biggest, most significant purchase most people ever make.

It didn't take long for so-called traditionalists, who favor new homes inspired by old farm houses and "gingerbread" cottages, to spar politely with edgy environmental activists, who recycle shipping containers and at least one 747 jetliner into housing.

Older modernists, such as Ray Kappe, a prominent Los Angeles architect for five decades and a founder and former director of SCI-Arc (the Southern California Institute of Architecture), tried to discourage an ambitious new generation of architect-builder-developers from revisiting an unfulfilled dream of post-World War II architects and designers.

Kappe and his Los Angeles-based predecessors, such as Charles Eames, Richard Neutra and Pierre Koenig, adapted off-the-shelf building parts and new materials and technology from the military and fledgling aerospace industry. Their goal was to provide inspiring yet economical, prefabricated or modular housing to thousands of families.

Despite Kappe's frank advice, young design teams from New York, Milwaukee and Venice, Calif., made it clear they are forging ahead with prefabricated housing designs. Joseph Tanney, of the New York firm Resolution: 4 Architecture, said he and his partners have done their homework and are taking a different tack from their predecessors.

"We found that in the past, architects attempted to design their own building systems and looked for a company to manufacture the parts," Tanney said. "We did a lot of research. We went to manufacturers and learned the limits in size (for transporting prefabricated parts and modules by truck or train)," for example, and geared our designs to those requirements. I think we're on to something."

One of the traditionalists, a Virginian named Russell Versaci, suggested design quality could improve from coast to coast by reviving a centuries-old carpenter's tool: house plans collected in books for public consumption.

In sharp contrast, Jennifer Siegal, a young adventurer in the new guard who heads The Office of Mobile Design in Venice, will soon take her clients into a factory to "customize" standard components that can be assembled quickly into a relatively inexpensive new home.

"It's a good conference because it has a lot of friction," said Allard Jansen, a Solana Beach-based architect and developer who attended the three-day event, which was organized by Residential Architect magazine.

Jansen's work runs from high-end custom homes in Rancho Santa Fe to urban row houses now under construction in San Diego's North Park neighborhood.

"I think there's a lot of learning going on among the camps," Jansen said. He noted how one faction claimed the American house has changed little in three centuries, while another group, led by keynote speaker Sarah Susanka, author of the best-selling book "The Not So Big House," argued that dining rooms have become irrelevant, while a space for sorting mail is necessary.

"The Sylvester Stallone of urban redevelopment" is how one Seattle-based architect described San Diego architect and developer Jonathan Segal, who has earned a national reputation. Segal attracted a small crowd after his tell-all, lightning-fast account of how he (with assistance from Wendy Segal, his wife and business partner) financed, designed, built and managed or sold some 150 lofts and apartments during the past 15 years in downtown San Diego neighborhoods.

Segal shared the guts-to-glory details of his extraordinary success to encourage other architects to take a similar plunge so they – not a developer or banker – control the scope and design quality of their architecture.

"Not everyone has the stomach" to assume the financial risks and uncertainties that many developers inevitably face, said Residential Architect editor S. Claire Conroy when she presented Segal with the magazine's 2004 Rising Star award. "Jonathan combines design talent with a prospector's knack for finding gold."

Nature and bottom line
Three highly respected architects from New York and California gave earnest, cutting-edge slide presentations on using reclaimed or renewable natural resources (including straw bales) and integrating high-and low-tech methods of saving energy and water into their residential designs.

Then, Jeremiah Eck, a Boston-based architect and traditionalist author of "The Distinctive Home: A Vision of Timeless Design," cut to the bottom line with his question for the panel: What six specific benefits of "green" architecture do they cite to convince clients to spend the extra money required up front for savings that may not materialize for years?

"Health!" called out an architect in the audience.

The three presenters agreed, two of them noting that most of their clients seek them out because they specialize in "green" design, which banishes carpeting that emits harmful gases, for example, and places windows for optimal sunshine and cross ventilation.

David Hertz, a Santa Monica architect on the panel who is known for sustainable building systems and strategies, underscored the point with an Environmental Protection Agency estimate that Americans spend 90 percent of their time indoors.

Dennis Wedlick, a New York City architect whose portfolio includes luxury communities built with sustainable methods and materials, tells clients that if they build smaller, they can use the money saved for better materials. Unlike most architects who first show their clients design concepts, then choose the materials to flesh them out, Wedlick said he "empowers" his clients by engaging them initially in the process of selecting suitable "green" materials and construction methods within their budget. Only then does the architectural design begin.

"The more regional we get (in design and sources of materials), the more empowered we are," Wedlick said. "We can actually build to save the world."

Jansen, the Solana Beach architect and developer, judged the conference a success because of its din of discussion and dissent.

"When I hear two different points of view, it's like the creative process we use in our office," he said. "I hear them and I think, 'What if you guys listen to each other.' I think there's a solution there."